Conrail Office Car Special & Conrail Blog

Conrail 55 Full Length Dome

Conrail 55, the full length dome car, joined the Conrail OCS train in 1988 and travelled the system in its former Santa Fe stainless steel appearance for 5 years. The Conrail 55 dome originally kept its ATSF designs on the bar, but it was eventually removed. CR 55 could be seen on Conrail Office Car Specials all over the system. Conrail 55 now serves on the Norfolk Southern business train.

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Conrail 12 Conference Car

Conrail 12, the Conrail Office Car Special Conference Car, was built in 1952 for the Pennsylvania Railroad and was rebuilt by Conrail's Reading Passenger Car Shops in 1980. This Conrail OCS car was versatile with a rich history, being the only car to have three unique paint schemes and perhaps the only car to have made a brief flight.

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Conrail Office Cars 1 & 4 (1st)

Conrail had two Office Cars numbered Conrail 1 and Conrail 4 as part of their OCS train. The original Conrail 1 and Conrail 4 business cars didn’t last too long on Conrail and were both gone by 1981. Conrail 1 (1st) lives on as a frequently seen private car New York Central 3 (NYC 3). Check out the histories and photos of these early Conrail business cars.

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Conrail 5 Office Car

Conrail 5, a former Norfolk & Western office car, was a unique car on the Conrail business train. The car served as Conrail 100 “Boston” for Richard Sanborn, former Conrail Chairman. It was renumbered to Conrail 5 “Boston” and ended its career simply as Conrail Office Car 5. Take an in-depth look at this car that served the Conrail Office Special with a streamlined beauty.

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Conrail 2 - Conrail 19 Test Car

Conrail 2 served on the Conrail Office Car Special until the early 1990s and around 1995 was converted to Conrail 19 Test Car. No longer considered a Conrail business car, the car could be seen sitting alongside the Juniata Locomotive Shop lab. Now in private service as WAMX 800322 “Tallgrass”, its modern history is a bit harder to track down. Check out the history of this former NYC railroad office car.

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Conrail OCS Wes Reminder Conrail OCS Wes Reminder

Conrail OCS Surprise Assignment

While the Conrail OCS train operated on a fairly tight and well defined schedule, many times the engineers who would operate the train were often in for a surprise when the train rolled into the station. In this story below by Douglas Kydd, he shares his experience of the Conrail Executive Train surprise assignment in 1998.

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